Top ten toilet facts

Wednesday 27 January 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Thomas Crapper.

To celebrate the anniversary, we present ten incredible (sometimes sobering) toilet-related facts for you to amaze your friends with...

1. Contrary to popular belief, Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet. He was however one of the first people to market it to the masses.
   
   
2. When it comes to toilet paper, woman are more likely to be grabbers, while men tend to be folders
   
   
3. The first toilet cubicle in a public washroom is the least likely to be used: it is also the cleanest
   
   
4. One gram of human faeces can contain 10,000,000 viruses, 1,000,000 bacteria, 1,000 parasite cysts and 100 parasite eggs
   
   
5. Most toilets flush in the key of E flat (yes, really!)
   
   
6. According to a recent Halifax housing survey, an estimated 40,000 homes in the UK still have an outside toilet
   
   
7. Children living in households with no toilet are twice as likely to get diarrhoea as those with a toilet, causing more deaths every year than AIDS, malaria and measles combined
   
   
8. The technology for the disposing of solid waste aboard a shuttle in space costs $23.4 million
   
   
9. Meeting the Millennium Development Goals on water and sanitation would cost an estimated $10 billion every year until 2015 (about as much as Europeans spend annually on ice cream)
   
   
10. You can join the attempt to break the record for the World's Longest Toilet Queue in March 2010 at www.wateraid.org/queue